Photo courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management
This is a great feeling. Today, three national monuments—Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts—were finally restored. We've been waiting for this day since 2017 when Trump illegally stripped protections from these monuments as a gift to his buddies in the oil, gas, and minings industries.
The Bears Ears restoration is a huge victory for the Inter-Tribal coalition of the Navajo Nation and the Hopi, Ute Indian, Ute Mountain Ute and Pueblo of Zuni Tribes that spent years lobbying for the monument to be created—and then kept up the fight after Trump tried to dismantle it.
In the words of Chairman Shaun Capoose of the Ute Indian Tribe, "President Biden did the right thing restoring the Bears Ears National Monument. For us the Monument never went away. We will always return to these lands to manage and care for our sacred sites, waters and medicines…. We battled for this Monument because it matters."
Send a message thanking President Biden and Interior Secretary Haaland for keeping their promise to restore our national monuments.
The board of Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners said, "This act of preservation safeguards the thousands of unique plant, animal, and insect species that rely on the ecosystems connected throughout the Colorado Plateau. It enables world-renowned research opportunities for paleontology and climate change. And it honors the sacred landscape home to Indigenous Peoples, including the Paiute, Hopi, Zuni, Dine/Navajo, Ute, Jemez Pueblo, Ute Mountain Ute, and Acoma nations."
And of course, millions of people sent public comments, made phone calls, attended webinars, and showed up at protests in support of monument protections—even if they'd never visited these places in person. All of that work has finally paid off, and we hope you can take a moment to savor the victory.
Together, these three monuments cover over 5 million acres of canyon, forests, desert, and ocean. Protecting them is an important step towards our goal of conserving 30% of our lands and waters by 2030. Over the past 25 years, Grand Staircase-Escalante has also been proof that monument designations can help local economies flourish. These actions set a path forward for a better future for everyone.